| Shipping labels come in all shapes and sizes and many | | | | poster child for a baby food they were selling into |
| are not made from what you may at first sight believe! | | | | certain African countries. Unfortunately, in Africa many |
| It is not only how some of them are made that may | | | | of the people are illiterate and in any event there are |
| give you pause for thought but sometimes, a shipping | | | | so many languages and dialects spoken that labeling a |
| label originating from one part of the globe can give a | | | | food package is almost irrelevant. Instead, what you |
| wry smile when it ultimately arrives at its final | | | | see on the tin is what you expect to find when you |
| destination. | | | | open the container and while here at home, the |
| Vintners for example have been working on numerous | | | | Johnson baby may be as cute as button, in Nigeria |
| ways to accentuate the look and feel of their wines | | | | consumers were put off the product because they |
| and packaging, notably concentrating on the bottle and | | | | thought they were actually buying cutesy white babies |
| labeling which has itself become big business within the | | | | ready for the pot! |
| industry. California is typical of the developments in | | | | When it comes to language and translation, shipping |
| marketing wine by concentrating on the packaging | | | | labels are a wealth of funny stories and incidents. |
| even when they have an already excellent wine inside. | | | | Customs inspectors in New Jersey were confronted |
| A good example is the 2006 Retour Willamette Valley | | | | with a shipment imported from India which the shipping |
| Pinot Noir with a bottle that weighs in at 2 pounds 5 | | | | labels declared to be full of "Burned Cow" and they |
| ounces and that's empty! The weight is in large part | | | | certainly had an aroma of bad BBQ emanating from it |
| due to the metal label applied to the bottle which simply | | | | too. A team from the Center for Disease Control |
| adds a significant amount of weight (almost a pound) | | | | arrived and after establishing a quarantine and mobile |
| which may be great if you are into that sort of thing | | | | laboratory to conduct tests and deal with the contents |
| but buy a case of the stuff and you are quite literally | | | | they proceeded to treat the packages with rubber |
| shipping 12 pounds of shipping label! | | | | gloves. Opening the packages revealed nothing more |
| In a case of cultural differences playing their part, an | | | | innocuous than hand carved wooden sculptures of |
| Australian firm manufactured the country's leading | | | | cows in various poses (the cow being the most |
| brand of sticky tape under the brand name "Durex". In | | | | sacred animal for many Indians) and which had been |
| an export drive, millions of rolls of the stuff were | | | | charred as part of their finishing. |
| shipped overseas but a degree of consternation | | | | Shipping labels may be the source of fun and |
| occurred when the initial shipments arrived in the UK - | | | | controversy for some but they are in fact simple to |
| perplexed customs officers were confronted by | | | | produce and source as well as performing a valuable |
| shipping labels and manifests declaring the goods to be | | | | function. You can design your own shipping labels |
| "Rolls of Durex" - in the UK, Durex is the leading brand | | | | easily in a custom format to suit your needs or simply |
| of prophylactic! | | | | source pre-designed ones for a special message such |
| A near marketing disaster was created when Johnson | | | | as "Fragile" - cheap and fast, it's your choice but try to |
| & Johnson chose a cutesy little baby as the | | | | avoid the funny mishaps too! |